“No, that’s not what I meant.”
She’d run out of excuses, that’s what she meant. There wasn’t a single part of this world that didn’t have a goddamn call on her soul. “And you’re absolutely sure this chain will help us form a tracking pair?”
He nodded, his lips compressed once more in a tight line. His eyes flared.
Slowly, she unlaced the chain from around her fingers, and slid it off her wrist.
Marius planted his elbows on his knees, made a fist with both hands, and pressed his joined fingers against his lips. She could feel he held back a wall of emotion. She also knew he expected her to just give the blood-chain back and ask to be taken home.
Instead, without giving it another thought, she slipped the chain over her head.
Marius drew in a quick breath and leaned back against the couch cushions. He closed his eyes, clearly overcome. “Shayna,” he whispered.
She set a hand on his shoulder. “Look at me.”
His eyes were wet when he opened them. He held his arm wide and she took full advantage, shifting to once more sit on his lap and throw her arms around his neck.
“I have to do this,” she said, weeping suddenly after all the holding back. “Of course I have to do this.”
She felt the bond of the blood-chain click into place, and Marius was right: She felt more connected to him than ever before.
Which meant she could sense that he was completely overcome as well.
He held her tightly and rocked her. “I don’t know what to say. I thought you were going to leave.”
“I know.
Me, too.”
“What was the vision about?”
She shook her head. “All these waves made it difficult to see, just a lot of disjointed images.” She wanted to tell him about the clay tablets, but she held back. “Is it okay if I don’t share everything? I mean, I’d tell you if I thought it was important, but I think this vision was meant for me, to help me make up my mind.”
She felt him weigh his response, that he hesitated, but finally he let it go. “Yes, it’s fine. I’m a little too wound up and too controlling. But this experience must also just be about you to have real meaning. I believe in the rights of the individual more than anything.”
In a moment of clarity, she understood something important about the situation. “So that’s why you’ve had so much guilt in taking me out of Seattle.”
“I know now that I wouldn’t have taken you at all, not without your consent, if Daniel’s men hadn’t show up.”
“Well, it’s probably better this way. I’m a hands-on kind of person. I learn better through touch and experience. I’m not sure if I could have made a decision to help without going through all of this.”
“Doesn’t make it right.”
She could feel his guilt pounding him once more, stronger now because of the chains. She wondered all over again why he felt this way—and was it just him, or was it a condition of all vampires to be saddled with excessive remorse?
Of course the actions of Daniel, who lived entirely without a conscience, told her that Marius’s guilt-laden suffering was all about him and not peculiar to his race.
She also felt the profound depth of his gratitude, and that was enough.
After a long moment, she pulled away from him, using her shirt to wipe her face. “How about we get a good night’s—or rather, day’s—sleep, then find this fucking weapon before your lunatic father does.”
Marius chuckled and nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”
* * *
Marius awoke with an unexpected pressure on his chest. He was groggy but had never slept better in his life.
Absently and with his eyes closed, he reached up to his chest to remove the thing causing the pressure and found his hand suddenly caught in Shayna’s hair.